Hiragana to do stage play "Ayumi" in Shibuya

The 20 members of Hiragana Keyaki will present 24 performances of the play "Ayumi" at an 800-seat theatre in Shibuya in April-May.

For the play, Hiragana is divided into two teams of ten, by age, across generations: "Team Harmonica" is older, "Team Castanet" is younger. Each team will do 12 performances.

Pics of the two teams ("Team Harmonica" above):

Team Harmonica: Iguchi Mao, Ushio Sarina, Katou Shiho, Saitou Kyouko, Sasaki Kumi, Takase Mana, Higashimura Mei, Matsuda Konoka, Miyata Manamo, Watanabe Miho (in Japanese alphabetical order).

Team Castanet: Kakizaki Memi, Kageyama Yuuka, Sasaki Mirei, Takamoto Ayaka, Kawata Hina, Kosaka Nao, Tomita Suzuka, Nibu Akari, Hamagishi Hiyori.

＜チームハーモニカ＞ 井口眞緒　潮 紗理菜　加藤史帆　齊藤京子　佐々木久美　高瀬愛奈　東村芽依　松田好花　宮田愛萌　渡邉美穂

＜チームカスタネット＞ 柿崎芽実　影山優佳　佐々木美玲　高本彩花　金村美玖　河田陽菜　小坂菜緒　富田鈴花　丹生明里　濱岸ひより


The play is the major work of Shiba Yukio 柴 幸男, who won the Kishida Kunio prize 岸田國士戯曲賞 for his drama Waga Hoshi わが星 in 2010. The play involves "no pop music," but just ten members on stage, all playing one character, "Ayumi," bringing to her their own individual styles.

It will be directed by Akazawa Mukku 赤澤ムック, a playwright/director/actress who is the head of the theatre group Kokushoku Kitan Canariaha 黒色綺譚カナリア派.

Performances will take place between April 20 and May 6, at the 800-seat AiiA Theatre in Shibuya, just south of Yoyogi Park. The theatre normally does "2.5D" plays based on anime and manga. One recent one was Your Lie in April. Its technical feature is that everyone gets special glasses that they can wear and watch the show with subtitles. For many of their plays, there are English subs. Not sure about this one.

Ticket price will be Y7800, the same as a Kanji live concert. An 800-seat theatre will bring everyone pretty close to the members.

Team Castanet looks impressive to me: Memi, Kage-chan and Mirei were three members whose acting was particularly impressive in Re:Mind. And Nao-chan and Suzuka are two of the most popular and capable 2gens. But that's not to say that Kyonko and Manafi weren't good in Re:Mind, or that Miho isn't a top 2gen, too.

The schedule is on this page. The square on the schedule chart is Team Harmonica, the circle Team Castanet. For ticket info, look here and here. But tickets may be hard to get for anyone who is not a Fan Club member, since it appears that members are already able to order theirs, but general sales don't start until 14 April. Just over 19,000 seats should be available in total.

The theatre's association with anime got me wondering if this is training for a Keyakizaka anime. The director says in her twitter that the members already do not embarrass themselves with their acting.
I also wonder what money the members will get from a thing like this. Do any Nogi/AKB fans know how it works? Total gross from tickets could be almost $1.5 million (24 dates x 800 seats x ¥7800 = ¥149,760,000 or about US$1.43 million).